Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez was born in San Solano on May 30, 1951 and is the current President of Paraguay. He also used to be the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of San Pedro.
Lugo's family was never very religious but his uncle, Epifanio Méndes Fleitas, was part of the Colorado Party. His father was imprisoned 20 times and his elder siblings were sent to exile. He first received an education in a religious school in Encarnación, then around age 17 he went to a normal school to work to become a lawyer. He began teaching in a rural community and the people were extremely religious but they had no priest. Because of this, Lugo was touched and entered a Society of the Divine Word seminary at age 19. He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1977. After going on a missionary trip to Ecuador for five years, he was only back in Paraguay for a year when the police asked that he was expelled form the country. Instead the Church sent him to Rome to further his studies and after he returned to Paraguay in 1987, he was later ordained Bishop on April 17, 1994. On January 11, 2005, he resigned as ordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro. He requested laicization, which means to remove a minister or priest from their right to exercise their functions of the priestly office, so that he could run for a government office. The Church denied him this request because Bishops could not undergo laicization and they also denied him the permission to run for a civil elected office.
Lugo won the presidential office on April 20, 2008 by a margin of 10 percentage points. It was the first time in 61 years that The Colorado Party lost an election. Lugo became Paraguay's first freely elected president and it was also the first time in Paraguay's history that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to an elected member from an opposing side. Lugo also said that he would not accept the presidential salary because it belongs to the people and wants more politicians to do the same ("República del Paraguay")
Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez
Lugo's family was never very religious but his uncle, Epifanio Méndes Fleitas, was part of the Colorado Party. His father was imprisoned 20 times and his elder siblings were sent to exile. He first received an education in a religious school in Encarnación, then around age 17 he went to a normal school to work to become a lawyer. He began teaching in a rural community and the people were extremely religious but they had no priest. Because of this, Lugo was touched and entered a Society of the Divine Word seminary at age 19. He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1977. After going on a missionary trip to Ecuador for five years, he was only back in Paraguay for a year when the police asked that he was expelled form the country. Instead the Church sent him to Rome to further his studies and after he returned to Paraguay in 1987, he was later ordained Bishop on April 17, 1994. On January 11, 2005, he resigned as ordinary of the Diocese of San Pedro. He requested laicization, which means to remove a minister or priest from their right to exercise their functions of the priestly office, so that he could run for a government office. The Church denied him this request because Bishops could not undergo laicization and they also denied him the permission to run for a civil elected office.
Lugo won the presidential office on April 20, 2008 by a margin of 10 percentage points. It was the first time in 61 years that The Colorado Party lost an election. Lugo became Paraguay's first freely elected president and it was also the first time in Paraguay's history that a ruling party peacefully surrendered power to an elected member from an opposing side. Lugo also said that he would not accept the presidential salary because it belongs to the people and wants more politicians to do the same ("República del Paraguay")
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